Wooden: A Coach's Life (91 page)

Naulls called Wooden to tell him about this young man: Naulls,
Levitation’s View
, p. 270.

“We’re a running club”: “Wizards in the Land of Oz,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 19, 1962.

“He was fancy”: Hall of Fame interview.

“My feeling was that we’d be better off not playing them that night”: “UCLA’s Negro Stars Benched for Aggie Tilt,”
Los Angeles Times
, Dec. 27, 1961.

“that doesn’t mean we won’t play there eventually”: Ibid.

17. “DON’T BE A HOMER!”

Interviews: Pete Blackman, Ken Flower, John Green, Dan Hruby, Earl Schulz, John Wooden

“He was screaming and yelling at me”: Heisler,
They Shoot Coaches, Don’t They?
, p. 22.

Hazzard called his mentor and friend, Willie Naulls, to inform him of his decision: Naulls,
Levitation’s View
, p. 273.

unbeknown to him, Wooden had already called his father before he benched Hazzard for the Ohio State game: Wooden with Jamison,
My Personal Best
, p. 132.

“I sort of question the fairness of this”:
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 12, 1962.

“Dadburn it, Joe, you saw him double dribble down there!”:
Sports Illustrated
, Jan. 6, 1969.

“I don’t stand up and do anything to excite the crowd”: Wooden interview with Jares.

“I needle, in a soft-sell way”: Ibid.

“he will say, ‘Do I want to meet this Wooden or do I want to meet that one?’”: Powell interview with Jares.

“Wooden was no saint”: Chapin and Prugh,
Wizard of Westwood
, p. 311.

“I’ve seen him so mad that I’ve been afraid he’d pop that big blood vessel in his forehead”:
Sports Illustrated
, Jan. 6, 1969.

“The athletic director of the other school came in and talked to me”: Wooden interview with ESPN, Mar. 12, 1998.

Wooden also developed a habit of bringing a stopwatch to the games: Wooden interview with Joe Jares.

“I don’t think from an educational viewpoint it’s the way to coach basketball or coach anything”: Jenkins,
Good Man
, p. 123.

an “antiseptic needle”: Reporter’s file for
Sports Illustrated
by Phil Taylor, July 24, 1968.

“I wouldn’t do that, boys”: “Wizards in the Land of Oz,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 19, 1962.

“Hazzard faked the guy and the guy fell down”: Wooden interview with John Akers,
Basketball Times
, Jan. 28, 2005.

18. GAIL

Interviews: Stan Andersen, Pete Blackman, Denny Crum, Keith Erickson, Gail Goodrich, Mike Hibler, Jack Hirsch, Bill Johnston, Bob Murphy, Jerry Norman, Barry Porter, Paul Saunders, George Stanich, John Wooden

$150 million to invest in new facilities: Hamilton and Jackson,
UCLA on the Move
, p. 144.

“Would I grow? Would I be big enough?” Reporter’s file for
Sports Illustrated
by Jack Tobin, Oct. 20, 1970.

“I thought he’d drive me out of my mind”: “New Kingpin of Go-Go Bruins,”
Sporting News
, Jan. 28, 1965.

“My first two years I was the king of the poor students”: Reporter’s file for
Sports Illustrated
by Jack Tobin, Oct. 20, 1970.

“You’ve never been ripped until he’s ripped you”: Ibid.

“I don’t think he would be ecstatic if his daughter married a black man”: Johnson,
John Wooden Pyramid of Success
, p. 358.

“The man was one of the most superstitious people I ever met”: Ibid., p. 361.

“Of course, it’s all very silly”: “John Thinks His Pre-Game Bruin Ritual Needs Repairs,”
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 13, 1960.

Wooden first got the idea when he read that the old St. Louis Cardinals baseball teams did it: Wooden interview with ESPN, Mar. 12, 1998.

He kept in his pocket a smooth rock, which he called his “Indian worry stone”: Joe Jares notes.

The connecting flight he was supposed to take crashed between Atlanta and Raleigh: Krider,
Indiana High School Basketball’s 20 Most Dominant Players
, p. 249; Chapin and Prugh,
Wizard of Westwood
, p. 6.

“I don’t think I ever looked at it as being superstitious”: Wooden interview with ESPN, Mar. 12, 1998.

“Look,” he said, pointing to the page. “Blue shoes”: Dunphy,
John R. Wooden
, p. 243.

“They had my home phone number”: Ibid., p. 141.

“to see they’re not getting slovenly”: Johnson,
John Wooden Pyramid of Success
, p. 123.

“I’m very fond of Keith”: Wooden interview with Jares.

“He was always abrasive”: “Day One of a Dynasty,”
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 29, 1989.

“I never asked the players to call me ‘Coach’”: Ibid.

the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission had allocated most of the Sports Arena’s Saturday night slots: “West Side Will See Hoopsters,”
Los Angeles Times
, Sept. 30, 1962.

“My guards can’t hit from anywhere past 15 feet”: “A Storm Blows In on Sunshine Square,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 18, 1963.

“I don’t want to schedule them for three years”: “UCLA, USC Begin Big Six Cage Play,”
Los Angeles Times
, Dec. 31, 1962.

“There were nights when I’d come home from practice so tired”: Reporter’s file for
Sports Illustrated
by Jack Tobin, Oct. 20, 1970.

“Freddie has a better attitude”: Medley,
UCLA Basketball
, p. 33.

“We’re backing in”:
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 18, 1963.

“No one likes money anymore”: “No TV, Only 2,000 Seats,”
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 11, 1963.

The poem was ten verses long: Wooden with Tobin,
They Call Me Coach
, p. 13.

19: PERFECT

Interviews: Jay Buckley, Keith Erickson, Gail Goodrich, Fred Goss, Walt Hazzard, Jack Hirsch, Rene Herrerias, Jeff Mullins, Jerry Norman, Fred Slaughter, Jerry Tarkanian, Kenny Washington, John Wooden

“give Fred Slaughter all he wants to handle and more”: “Provo Post-Mortems,”
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 19, 1963.

“He did a lousy job in ’63”: Hall of Fame interview.

“Jerry was not reluctant to make suggestions”: Ibid.

“I’ve always second-guessed myself a little for that”: Bisheff,
John Wooden
, p. 52.

To that point in his life, he had barely spoken to a white person: Medley,
UCLA Basketball
, p. 17; “The Team of ’64,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 26, 1979.

“He had structure, a philosophy built on fairness”: “Birth of a Dynasty,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 19, 2007.

“Our kids got rattled by their press”: Medley,
UCLA Basketball
, p. 30.

the Bruins were “absolutely the best precision team I’ve ever seen”: “UCLA Climbed Hoop Pinnacle in Topping Michigan,”
Sporting News
, Jan. 11, 1964.

“it was an innovation that just shocked people”: Heisler,
They Shoot Coaches, Don’t They?
, p. 23.

“Passes are intercepted and teammates will sometimes say, ‘Watch your passing’”: Medley,
UCLA Basketball
, p. 28.

“Every team we face in the conference will try to do the same thing”: “Sputtering Bruins Catch Fire, 79-59,”
Los Angeles Times
, Jan. 11, 1964.

“I don’t recall ever seeing us break loose the way we did tonight”: “Whew! Bruins Gun Down Injuns, 84-71,”
Los Angeles Times
, Jan. 18, 1964.

“Sure, there’s some pressure on us”: “Pressure Grows for Streaking Bruins; Huskies Next in Path,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 10, 1964.

“I had an orange juice and a sandwich and then went right in and got sick”: “The Real Bruins,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 12, 1964.

“I’ve won a lot of ball games in the Bay Area”: “Bruins to Face Bad ‘Press’ at Stanford,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 17, 1964.

“They don’t look like any superteam”: “Five Midgets and a Wink at Nell,”
Sports Illustrated
, Feb. 24, 1964.

“As soon as we meet a team with a good big center, we may be in trouble”: “U.C.L.A. Five Makes It to Top on Clean Living and Fast Break,”
New York Times
, Jan. 22, 1964.

“All five.
Team
. You understand?”:
Sports Illustrated
, Feb. 24, 1964.

“Yet, off the floor, they were not that close”: John Wooden interview with ESPN, Apr. 19, 2000.

“Hazzard and Goodrich didn’t get along at all”: Medley,
UCLA Basketball
, p. 36.

“But Hazzard
will
pass”: Joe Jares notes on Wooden lecture at Kutsher’s Country Club, June 26, 1967.

“He picks up more garbage than anyone I’ve ever seen”: Ibid.

“I remember looking over at him with his legs crossed and program rolled up”:
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 19, 2007.

“And we just enjoyed playing for the man”: Ibid.

“We were too busy having fun and beating the crap out of everyone”: Ibid.

“I said to myself, this man is nuts”: Johnson,
John Wooden Pyramid of Success
, p. 358.

“It’s as if God said, this team is going undefeated”:
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 19, 2007.

“I think we can beat their press”: “The Two-Minute Explosion,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 30, 1964.

“Up”: Ibid.

Wooden broke his policy not to call the first time-out: Wooden with Tobin,
They Call Me Coach
, p. 132.

“We couldn’t beat ’em!”: Medley,
UCLA Basketball
, p. 39.

“You are champions and you must act like champions”:
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 30, 1964.

20. J. D.

Interviews: Keith Erickson, Gail Goodrich, Fred Goss, Ron Livingston, Mike Serafin

“I’ll take care of the budget”: Wooden with Jamison,
My Personal Best
, p. 142; Johnson,
John Wooden Pyramid of Success
, p. 111.

“He was a very dominant, aggressive type of person”: J. D. Morgan Oral History, UCLA Archives.

“I was sitting there during a time-out”: Ibid.

“That was a tremendous load off my shoulders”: Ibid.

“John was never interested in money”: Ibid.

“I’m more inclined toward what Charlie Brown says”: Chapin and Prugh,
Wizard of Westwood
, p. 308.

“I saw all those games and the preparations”: Hall of Fame interview.

the Iowa players lifted their coach, Ralph Miller:
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 8, 1965.

“The crowd was yelling louder and louder”: “The Power of the Press,”
Sports Illustrated
, Mar. 29, 1965.

21. LEWIS

Interviews: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (including for College Sports Television), Lucius Allen, Jay Carty, Gary Cunningham, Fred Goss, Jerry Norman

the man called him Lewis: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Peter Knobler,
Giant Steps: The Autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
(Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983), p. 108.

“I am impressed by your grades”: Ibid., p. 109.

even the speculation that he
might
visit: “Ace Schoolboy Cage Prospect to Visit UCLA.”
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 17, 1965.

Alcindor arrived by plane on Friday night (and many other details of Alcindor’s visit): Reporter’s file for
Sports Illustrated
, May 5, 1965.

“That really impressed me”: Bisheff,
John Wooden
, p. 126.

jammed regularly at the Elks Club: “My Story,”
Sports Illustrated
, Oct. 27, 1969.

white barbers in their neighborhood: Ibid.

“You only give people something to laugh about”: Ibid.

“I could see Lewie flush”: “Lewie Is a Minority of One,”
Sports Illustrated
, Dec. 5, 1966.

“You’re acting just like a nigger!”: Abdul-Jabbar and Knobler,
Giant Steps
, p. 66;
Sports Illustrated
, Oct. 27, 1969.

a coaching clinic in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Wooden interview with Akers.

“We’d never have gotten him to come with the old gym”: Ibid.

He said it was because Norman was Catholic: J. D. Morgan Oral History, UCLA Library.

“the first time the press had ever heard the sound of Alcindor’s voice”: “The Big Decision,”
New York World-Telegram and Sun
, May 5, 1965.

“I have an announcement to make”: “Schoolboy Star Explains Choice,”
New York Times
, May 5, 1965.

“I’ve seen the kid play several times”: “Big A Guarded,”
New York Journal-American
, Jan. 16, 1965.

“Anybody who believes that is only displaying his ignorance”: “Alcindor Mature, Modest Young Man,”
Christian Science Monitor
, May 6, 1965.

“I don’t try to make a star out of anybody”: Ibid.

“
Is that Lew Alcindor?
”: “My Story.”

“ocean on a raft”: Ibid.

“Yes, I would have hired him”: Bisheff,
John Wooden
, p. 11.

“I was just astounded”: Wooden interview with ESPN, Mar. 12, 1998.

“I was completely impressed”: “UCLA’s Alcindor Rises to Occasion,”
Christian Science Monitor
, Dec. 1, 1965.

“We’re way out of place”: Reporter’s file by Bill McWhirter,
Time
, Dec. 1, 1965.

22. STALLBALL

Interviews: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lucius Allen, Bob Boyd, Gary Cunningham, Dick Enberg, Fred Goss, Ken Heitz, Mike Lynn, Jerry Norman, Bill Sweek, Mike Warren

In the fall of 1965,
Sports Illustrated
previewed the coming season: “A Press That Panics Them All,”
Sports Illustrated
, Dec. 6, 1965.

“I said I won’t go back to this place again”: Hall of Fame interview.

“Basketball followers have built up something of a hate for coach John Wooden”: “Dallmar Hero in Bay Area,”
Los Angeles Times
, Jan. 31, 1966. The writer is not the same Paul Zimmerman, also known as “Dr. Z,” who spent several decades writing about the National Football League for
Sports Illustrated
.